A Spider on Your Hat
by Emi.Kabehito
Summary: Amelia Bones agrees with work and disagrees with love. After all, she's only been in love once, and that's ended in the worst way possible ... one-shot, written for the Impossible Love Challenge on Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges.


**Hi. This is my story for the Impossible Love Challenge on Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges. The pairing is Sirius Black/Amelia Bones, and the prompts are:**

**-White, "I thought I knew you. I guess I was wrong", blanket, spider and hat-**

**The reason their love is impossible? Sirius is being shipped off to Azkaban. Now, on with the story! **

Amelia Bones didn't agree with all that awful romantic … stuff. There were more important things to think about, like studying, getting a good job in the Ministry, and working her way to the top of said career. That was the eventual plan, anyway. The area she wanted to work in? Law. Justice. Doing what is right. Nothing could ever distract her, especially not _love_. No. Never love.

"_There's a spider on your hat."_

Amelia awoke with a small jolt and sat up quickly, shivering. All of the things she could have dreamt of, it had to be that. That one memory, of that one time. When love took over studying.

Having only just woken up, it took Amelia a few moments to gather her thoughts and work out just why that memory had resurfaced on that particular day. All of a sudden, the reason hit her, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. Today was the day he was being taken to Azkaban, without trial. The words went round in her head again. _Justice. Doing what is right._ He was a Death Eater, a spy for Voldemort, the … the monster who had wiped out her whole family. He had killed thirteen people in one go. This, surely, was justice.

But not being given a trial?

She shivered again, and finally got out of bed, her head swimming with thoughts and memories. She caught her reflection in the window of her small, dingy bedroom, and sighed deeply. What would people say if they knew that focused, career-driven Amelia Bones was in love with spy and murderer Sirius Black? Who would have thought it possible? The only person she had ever been in love with, and it had to be him, didn't it? Of course, back at Hogwarts, there was no way anyone could have guessed what he'd become … plenty of other students seemed more likely suspects. He and his friends, the four people who were always together no matter what, the people adored by most of the students at school. Amelia had been in the year above at school, and had never had anything to do with these four popular boys, being older and in a different house. Until that one day in winter, back in her sixth year.

_Snow was swirling past the windows of Hogwarts, a beautiful, pure white, blanketing the grounds in a thick layer and hiding everything outside. Amelia was not outside with the majority of the students, but in the library, doing extra study. It helped to take her mind of the tragedy that had so recently hit her family. All that was left of them anyway. Suddenly, someone sat down on the chair next to hers'. She looked round and saw Sirius Black, a fifth year Gryffindor, grinning inanely at her. She raised an eyebrow, and that's when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, three figures behind a nearby bookshelf. His friends. Clearly, he had been dared to approach her. How immature! She looked at him coldly._

_"Hi, Amelia Bones," he said._

_"Hello," she said stiffly._

_"Working hard, I see," he observed, and he gave her a mocking salute. _

_"Well, I would be," she retorted. "What do you want, Black?"_

_"To tell you something very important, something that will definitely make you thank me for interrupting your hard work," he said, looking as serious and solemn as possible._

_"And what might that be?" she said, her eyebrows going so far up her forehead she was sure they'd disappeared behind her fringe._

_"There's a spider on your hat," he replied hurriedly._

_Amelia let out a false, high-pitched laugh. "Oh, really? And that's the best you can come up with it? You boys aren't as clever as your reputation makes you out to be. That is the worst prank ever, honestly. And I'm really not in the mood to play along because, to be honest, I'm slightly more preoccupied by the fact that most of my family were murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named last week."_

_Sirius's mouth opened slightly, and his eyes widened in horror_

_"Yeah," she said. "So, if you'll excuse me ..."_

_"But, Amelia Bones," Sirius said. "There really is a spider on your hat."_

_Frowning, Amelia took of her hat, and gave it a proper look. And there, on the rim, almost perfectly blending with the colour of the hat, was a relatively large, thick-set, hairy spider. Trying to remain calm and composed, she placed the hat on the desk, took out her wand and, making sure the librarian wasn't looking, blasted the spider as far away from her hat as possible. It scrambled away through a crack in the wall, to goodness knows where. Amelia then turned to Sirius, slightly red in the face with embarrassment._

_"Sorry," she mumbled._

_"That's all right," he said, getting up. "I suppose people expect us to constantly joke, it's only a natural reaction. I'm sorry too. I didn't know about your family."_

_He rejoined his friends behind the bookshelf, and Amelia was left to her work and her thoughts. _

For some reason, after that moment, Amelia's perception of Sirius Black and his friends began to change and, for some reason, the incident caused her to develop feelings for Sirius Black. But why? It was just completely unexplainable. Maybe, what with all the emotional trauma she had been going through at that point, she was just more emotionally raw and susceptible to the feeling of love she had managed to avoid up until that point. She had always thought those four boys were just pranksters, nothing serious or kind about them, but that day changed that. Sometimes she wondered, if it had been one of the others, would she still have fallen in love?

And yet, over the course of a year, fall in love she did. Even though what she wanted to focus on was her work, and her exams, she still made the time to talk to Sirius where possible, taking pleasure in even just being able to say "Hi" and having him say "Hi" back. She was so in love with him and now, well, now what? He was going to prison for life. He was a murderer. _You sure now to pick them, Amelia, _she thought to herself as she finished getting ready for work. She hesitated. Sirius would be at the Ministry today, as it was from there that he would be sent to Azkaban. Should she say anything, if she saw him?

At last, gathering her courage, she took a handful of Floo Powder, threw it into the flames in her fireplace, stepped in, and said clearly, 'Ministry of Magic, Atrium." And she was off. No going back now.

The Atrium was stuffed with Ministry workers and reporters alike, all keen to see Sirius sent off to Azkaban. They were being held back behind a charm to stop them attacking Sirius, as many of them probably wanted to do that, and Amelia decided it was a sign that she shouldn't try and fight her way through the crowd to see him one last time. She was just turning towards the lift when there was a sudden upsurge in the sound level, indicating that Sirius had arrived. She hesitated. It had all happened so many years ago. She didn't still love him. Then again, she didn't love anyone else, so who was to stay it wasn't still him? She sighed heavily, and then started working her way through to the front of the crowd.

There he was, flanked by Dementors, getting ready to be apparated to Azkaban. He didn't look shocked, or angry, or even calm. His face was completely devoid of emotion, as though the Dementors had already sucked out every single happy thought. But why did he look like he had given up? That wasn't like the Sirius Black Amelia Bones had known, but then again, she hadn't seen him since she him for a long time. Did being a servant of Voldemort do that to you? He just looked so sad ... then it hit Amelia, completely suddenly, and it was like being hit in the stomach when she realised what it had to be. He had to be sad about James and Lily Potter. She tried to remind herself that he had actually been on Voldemort's side, but she couldn't shake of the memory of James and Sirius at school. Or the memory of Sirius at all. How he had been so horrified when he learnt what Voldemort had done to her family, the day they first spoke. The Sirius she knew would never have joined Voldemort, would never have been a murderer, especially if it came to James Potter. Not the Sirius she thought she knew. She thought she had known him. But she guessed she was wrong.

She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered her last day ever at Hogwarts. The day she had confessed to Sirius.

_"I know you're going to be really creeped out by this, but I have to tell you," she had said to him after taking him to one side after breakfast. "But ... I ... well ... I love you. I have for about a year, and I thought it was about time you knew."_

_Sirius looked completely taken aback by this statement. Amelia's heart sank. Eventually, Sirius laughed a little and said, "Really? That explains why you talk to me every day, I guess. I like you, Amelia." Suddenly, he grinned. "What a strange pair we'd be! And yet, at the same time, we'd work, in an opposites attract sort of way. Say, want to date?"_

_"Bit late for that," Amelia said weakly._

_"Ah, good point," Sirius said. "Well, when I leave Hogwarts, let's meet up again. See what our feelings are then? Promise?"_

_Amelia smiled. "I promise. That would be good. Bye, Sirius."_

_"Bye, Amelia Bones." _

Circumstances conspired against them, even then. The war against Voldemort got a lot more serious after that, and they lost all contact. Amelia focused on her work, her career, instead, and tried to forget. She often asked herself - did he really like her? Or love her, even? Did he mean what he had said? He'd been telling the truth about the spider, so why not the promise?

He was right in front of her, she could see him in the flesh for the first time in four years, and her heart had started pounding. She raised her hand and placed it against the charm, trying to reach him. There must have been a mistake. Surely he was innocent? Sirius looked round, and their eyes met. Amelia kept her face as composed as possible, although she did mouth, 'I love you', and attempted a smile. Sirius's expression remained dead, but he did mouth, "Goodbye". A second later, he and the Dementors were gone. Gone forever. There was nothing Amelia could do. The person she loved was beyond her reach, and she felt like crying. She didn't though. Crying was for the weak, in her opinion.

An unmovable barrier had been placed between her and Sirius. Although, in a way, their love had always been impossible. Sirius had said that opposites attract, and that's how they could work. But were they not just a little too different? Sirius Black and Amelia Bones - it was always going to be impossible.


End file.
